After declining for more than a decade, the age-adjusted rate for heart failure-related deaths increased from 2012 to 2014, according to a recent data brief from the National Center for Health Statistics.
The trend was consistent for men and women of all age groups studied: 45 to 64 years old; 65 to 74 years old; 75 to 84 years old; and 85 and older. The death rate was higher for men than for women in all age groups.
Researchers Hanyu Ni, PhD and Jiaquan Xu, MD defined heart failure-related deaths as those with heart failure reported as an underlying or contributing cause of death on the death certificate.
The age-adjusted rate for heart failure-related deaths in 2014 was 84 deaths per 100,000 population, up from 83.4 in 2013 and 81.4 in 2012 but down from 105.4 in 2000. Overall, the number of heart-failure related deaths declined from 2000 through 2009 before increasing steadily through 2014.
In 2014, the age-adjusted heart failure-related death rate was 91.5 deaths per 100,000 population for non-Hispanic blacks, 87.3 for non-Hispanic whites and 53.3 for Hispanics in 2014.
From 2000 through 2012, the age-adjusted heart failure-related death rate decreased 20 percent for non-Hispanic blacks and 22 percent for non-Hispanic whites before increasing 4 percent for each group from 2012 through 2014. Meanwhile, the age-adjusted heart failure-adjusted death rate declined 27 percent for Hispanics from 2000 through 2014.
The age-adjusted heart failure-related death rate in 2014 was highest in adults who were 85 or older (2,842.9 deaths per 100,000 population for men and 2,333.5 for women), followed by adults 75 to 84 (720.0 deaths per 100,000 population for men and 504.7 for women), adults 65 to 74 (201.8 deaths per 100,000 population for men and 124.6 for women) and adults 45 to 64 (41.3 deaths per 100,000 population for men and 24.0 for women).
In 2014, coronary heart disease was the underlying cause of death for 23.9 percent of heart failure-related deaths, while other cardiovascular diseases accounted for 41.2 percent and non-cardiovascular diseases such as cancer, diabetes, chronic lower respiratory diseases and kidney disease accounted for 34.9 percent.
Meanwhile, 30.0 percent of heart failure-related deaths occurred in a hospital, 27.6 percent occurred at a descendant’s home, 26.7 percent occurred in nursing homes or long-term care facilities and 15.7 percent occurred in other places such as an outpatient clinic or hospice facility.
Executive Editor
Tim Casey joined TriMed Media Group in 2015 as Executive Editor. For the previous four years, he worked as an editor and writer for HMP Communications, primarily focused on covering managed care issues and reporting from medical and health care conferences. He was also a staff reporter at the Sacramento Bee for more than four years covering professional, college and high school sports. He earned his undergraduate degree in psychology from the University of Notre Dame and his MBA degree from Georgetown University.